Travel Stories Week 10

AdeventuresOfAWanderluster

What's your favorite place you have visited?

This question is one of the most difficult to answer as I have been to so many amazing places. Each one has its own vibe and charm that I tend to fall in love with. However, if I had to pick just one I would say it had to be Bali, Indonesia. My ideal vacation spot is somewhere that incorporates beach, culture and history. Bali nailed it in all three categories. Even though I visited in low season, the weather was perfect. I learned all about the Hindu-Buddhist religion and Balinese customs and fell in love with the relaxed and calming way of life.

Bali was also fantastic in the sense that the food was delicious everywhere I ate and once there, everything was cheap. Being able to eat a meal for £5-10 or taking an Uber for 45 minutes to one of the most beautiful beaches I have seen for €3 was incredible. Bali, hands down, is one of my favourite places I have been.

What’s the best thing you have seen while travelling?

This is another tough question to answer as I have seen so many amazing things and had some incredible life changing experiences. The most recent for me was hot air ballooning over the Fairy Chimneys in Cappadocia at sunrise. This was top of my bucketlist for such a long time and I was finally able to make my dream come true when I booked my trip to Turkey last month.

One of my biggest fears is to experience something I have only dreamed of and then having it completely underwhelm me. This has happened a few times already on past travels, but this experience actually exceeded my expectations. It was a little scary at first climbing into the balloon and rising into the sky, but once up in the air and looking out over the valleys and fairy chimneys, it took my breath away. Realising I was just floating in a balloon up high in the sky, witnessing one of the most beautiful places on earth from above, was peaceful and liberating.

What’s your best travel story?

A friend and I were decided to head to Goa in May for my birthday. We had heard very mixed things about it but decided that we wanted to go somewhere new and exciting no matter what other people told us about. We booked our flights and just needed to book our hotel. I spent a lot of time researching the best places and areas to stay in before booking anything. I came across one hotel that looked perfect. It was all inclusive, directly on the beach, had rave reviews and fit our budget. I went ahead and booked it.

When we finally arrived pretty late in evening, the hotel looked a little run down but we didn’t think twice. At first the staff were extremely friendly and welcoming. They even upgraded us to our own private bungalow. We were thrilled! After checkin, we were escorted to our room and it all went down hill from there.

The room was old, filthy and had cockroaches. There were no towels, no WIFI and the bed was as hard as a rock. We were so upset and grossed out but tired from the long day of travelling. Neither of us said anything to the other because we didn’t want to upset each other. We decided that we just needed to sleep and hope for the best when we woke up.

The next morning we went for breakfast and then head to the front desk to voice our concerns and see what they could do for us. The staff went from friendly to rude, threatening to take away the room they upgraded us to and told us there was nothing they could do about it. While I was talking to the man at reception, my friend was actually online looking for other hotels in the area. I had no idea he was doing this which I thought was pretty funny because I did the same thing after dealing with the front desk.

When we finally told each other that how we felt, we agreed to find another place to stay. It wouldn’t have been worth it to stay in a place that would make us miserable for a whole week being so far from home. We found a really nice looking place not too far from where we were. We decided to go there to check it out before anything. The staff at the new hotel were amazing. They showed us around the property and the rooms. They clearly felt sorry for us after explaining what had happened. They even offered us a super discounted price if we decided to stay there. That was it…. we went back, grabbed our stuff and checked into the new hotel. From that point on, we had a wonderful vacation! Looking back at the experience, it was frustrating and horrible, but certainly makes for a great story today!

Tell us about your blog

I am fairly new to the blogging world as I only started writing about 6 months ago. I have been travelling the world for the last five years and have been to 61 countries and counting. I finally decided that it was time to start documenting my travels, not only for myself, but for others to read and enjoy. My blog is a mix of travel journals, city guides and top tips based on previous and current travels.

There are more than 190 countries in the world, each with their own unique flag. Each week we show you 9 flags from around the world and we simply ask you to tell us which country that flag belongs to.

Subscribe to our mailing list

subscribe to be the first to know when we have a new blog post for your reading pleasure!

Email Address

We respect your privacy, and promise to never send you spam. If the tribe isn’t for you then that’s cool. The option to opt-out is available in every email we send to you.